SACRAMENTO – The computer network at the California Department of Motor Vehicles went down Tuesday for about four hours, triggering delays as clerks at field offices throughout the state processed driver’s licenses and registrations by hand.

DMV spokeswoman Jessica Gonzalez said the problem was fixed around noon Tuesday and state workers were catching up on the backlog created by the network problem. She said field offices were anticipating a busy next few days as a result of rescheduled appointments and other delays from Tuesday.

Gonzalez encouraged the public to use the DMV’s website as an alternative. The department issues nearly 24 million driver’s licenses and 31.7 million vehicle registrations.

Adam Dondro, spokesman for the state technology agency, likened the problem to when a home or office experiences Internet connection problems and routers have to be reset.

He said state workers needed to identify the router that broke down, which disconnected DMV’s computers from its network.

“We haven’t been able to isolate it,” Dondro said when the connection was still down. “It’s somewhere between one of (the DMV) routers and either our technology router or a Verizon router. We’ve been kind of peeling the onion to try to figure out where it is and haven’t been able to nail it down yet.”

At the Pasadena DMV office, lines were unusually short, as many people opted to return later.

Graham Witherall of South Pasadena, who was waiting for his son Clem to take his written test, said they would have to come back another day to complete the paperwork for his son’s permit.

Sisters Tatiana and Sophia Mendez wanted to get duplicate driver’s licences, but had to get an appointment for Wednesday. It wasn’t the first time they had been delayed by DMV’s computers.

“The first time I ever got my permit, I was here for three hours because the systems were down,” Sophia Mendez said.

“I’m annoyed, I’m really annoyed,” Tatiana Mendez added.

The Montebello office was a bit more chaotic, and some customers waited for the system to come back online.

“I plan to just wait it out until they tell me to leave,” Jonathan Poravo of Montebello said in the morning. “They keep saying that there’s a possibility it will come up, maybe later. So I’m going to just stick it out as long as I can, until my patience runs out.”

Dondro, the state technology spokesman, said a separate technology issue that impacted other state agencies has also been repaired. A circuit reconfiguration early Tuesday morning took down other state networks, including the Department of Consumer Affairs, he said.

“All systems in the state are back up and running, including DMV,” he said.